etheriafandomcom-20200214-history
The Swarm
Back to Races ---- Buildings ''Dunekeep'' The Dunekeep is almost like every other keep in the game. It's large, has the typical amount of hit points and costs the usual price. However, the Dunekeep has almost half the build time than other keeps, even more so when you factor in the Ant's higher than average build skill. Also, the Dunekeep comes with an unique ability, one that plays to the Lord of Famine's embodiment - Famine! Right from the get go, the Dunekeep can research the Famine skill which, once researched, allows the Dunekeep to start draining enemy resources for a cost of 500 crystal. The cost may see high but The Swarm have little use for crystal early game, allowing you to spend it here. When you eventually hit late game, it cost still wont matter because it's likely you have already hit your opponents hard enough with the Famine ability already that you wont need to use it further! Keep in mind that the Dunekeep produces Lord Melkor, so place it and surrounding buildings in such a way that he wont get stuck in your base after he enters the map. Famine 1: Adds an interactive ability to the Dunekeep, allowing it to drain a random, non-friendly mine on the map of 2000 resources for a cost of 500 crystal. Famine 2: Increases the effects of the Famine ability to drain 4000 resources. (Requires Famine 1 and Dunekeep level 2) Famine 3: Increases the effects of the Famine ability to drain 6000 resources. (Requires Famine 2 and Dunekeep level 3) Famine 4: Increases the effects of the Famine ability to drain 8000 resources. (Requires Famine 3 and Dunekeep level 4) ''Hive'' The Hive is similar to a keep in the sense that it too can be upgraded 4 times, reaching level 5 at its highest. However, it can't be upgraded any higher than your Dunekeep's current level. Also like a keep, it's rather large. But, unfortunately, Hives are also The Swarms main production buildings, meaning you'll be needing to build a lot of them. As such, you'll find yourself running out of space very quickly. However, each fully leveled Hive can be quite durable at 900 HP, as well as offering +6 to your army limit. ''Burial Hall'' The Burial Hall is a simple building that produces Husks, and then later on, Bone Catapults. You'll probably never be building Bone Catapults, but Husks can be useful, especially since they cost only a small amount of metal which is shared only with Scorpions and Ants. Although building four of these would be ideal to get a full sized mob of Husks in a quick time, you'll mostly be limited to just two because, as well as fighting the enemy, you'll also be fighting for space within your base grounds. Burial Halls are, fortunately, not that big. ''Egg Chamber'' Interestingly, the Egg Chamber requires metal to be built and offers +4 to your army limit, as well as having a large 18 view. Also, it appears that the Egg Chamber, as with every other building owned by The Swarm, seems to stop defeat. Clearly there's been some careless copy n' pasting going on here. Anyway, the Egg Chamber only researches faster production speeds for the Hive. Once you obtain the ninth and last Incubation skill, your units from the Hive will be produced 50% faster, allowing you to swarm at the best! Even though the Egg Chamber offers +4 to your army limit, I would advise against building more than one of these because they too are a rather large building and the space is best used for a Hive, which can offer +6 to your army limit when fully leveled, as well as producing units. Incubation 1: Decreases production time at the Hive by 10% Incubation 2: Decreases production time at the Hive by 15% (Requires Incubation 1) Incubation 3: Decreases production time at the Hive by 20% (Requires Incubation 2) Incubation 4: Decreases production time at the Hive by 25% (Requires Incubation 3) Incubation 5: Decreases production time at the Hive by 30% (Requires Incubation 4) Incubation 6: Decreases production time at the Hive by 35% (Requires Incubation 5) Incubation 7: Decreases production time at the Hive by 40% (Requires Incubation 6) Incubation 8: Decreases production time at the Hive by 45% (Requires Incubation 7) Incubation 9: Decreases production time at the Hive by 50% (Requires Incubation 8) ''Brood'' The Swarm can make good use of both of their basic and advanced fliers, as well as Dragons, of course. As such, you'll probably be building more of these buildings than you would with any other race. Most of the time you'll be producing Wasps, with the occasional switch to Harpies if your enemy goes spell caster heavy. But once Dragons roll around and clog up the production queue, you'll be making even more of these buildings, not necessarily to level them up, but to keep some Wasps in the fray. ''Watcher'' The Watcher is an odd building. Firstly, it's dedicated towards view sight researches, which nearly all other races that have access to a building like this have access to it at tier 1. Secondly, its stats seem out of place. For a scout tower like building, it has a poor view sight - shorted than it's attack range. In addition to this, it can attack both ground and air units, as apposed to just air. Finally, it has an odd cost, requiring metal again and a weird 120 stone. Why not 125? Regardless, it does the same duties as all other scout towers, so if you're not playing with fog of war or / and hidden map, then you can forgo building one of these. The pitiful 10 electrical attack is hardly worth a reason to build one of these, even if The Swarm could do with more anti-aerial support. Eagle Eye 1: +2 view range to all troops and buildings. Eagle Eye 2: +3 view range to all troops and buildings. (Requires Eagle Eye 1) Eagle Eye 2: +4 view range to all troops and buildings. (Requires Eagle Eye 2) Farseeing: Removes all fog of war and hidden map. (Requires Eagle Eye 3) ''Queen'' Slightly larger than the Shrine of Melkor, but slightly weaker, slightly cheaper and quicker to build. The Queen is a building dedicated towards researching skills. The researches it offers increase attack speed and combat. Both of which greatly improve The Swarm's attacking capabilities, allowing even their most feeble of units to hit decently and before the enemy can make their attack. Morale 1: +3 Morale to your Hero. Morale 2: +6 Morale to your Hero. (Requires Morale 1) Morale 3: +9 Morale to your Hero. (Requires Morale 2) Fertility: +3 combat to all Swarm units (including Wasps). ''Shrine of Melkor'' This small building is another building dedicated towards researching skills, but some of the more better ones in The Swarm's arsenal. Summon Mana is great for Heroes and Scorpionpriests, who also get their own specific research in here, too. But the most important and sadistic research to be had is Melkor's Curse. This skill can actually make poison viable. However, it affects the poison mechanic, meaning all poisons in the game become affected by this, even the enemies. As the building is small, it can be chucked in your base somewhere without much care. Just remember that you still need to keep a clear path from your Dunekeep for Lord Melkor's arrival. Summon Mana 1: Mana regeneration in your army is at 150% of normal. Summon Mana 2: Mana regeneration in your army is at 200% of normal. (Requires Summon Mana 1) Summon Mana 3: Mana regeneration in your army is at 300% of normal. (Requires Summon Mana 2) Melkor's Curse: The effects of poison across the entire map is doubled. Melkor's Blessing: +10 damage for Scorpionpriests. ''Tower (Swarm) The Swarm's tower has a low damage amount, but it possesses a rare to find magic type. As nothing in the game has any armor to magic (though some units have a special resistance to it), it will always be hitting for full damage, ensuring that even the most toughest of opponents can be cracked. However, the low damage amount does mean that weedy units that don't normally have any armor will still be hit for the same, low damage, making the towers only really effective at hitting tough, armored units. The building's heavy cost of gold clashes with Scarabs' heavy cost of gold, too. Although, the Scarabs could be placed into the towers to beef up that poor damage amount, in doing so, you'll be making The Swarm's easy to exploit terrible air defense even more exploitable, as well as generally weakening their effectiveness against elite infantry and the many units in the game that have a fire resistance. Units ''Giant Ant - The Swarm's Basic Builder The Giant Ant is the basic builder of The Swarm. These builders are weak, have no special ability and make annoying sounds, but do have a great build skill of 12. They can also be put into mines to increase their resource income. ''Husk - The Swarm's Missile Fodder'' Husks are basic infantry unit of The Swarm. They are like the Skeletons of the Undead in the same sense that they are fragile but highly resistant to missile, making them great tower / archer fodder. However, their missile resistance only applies to physical missiles, so elemental projectiles will still slaughter them. As they are not produced from the Hive, the Swarm's main production building, they therefore are not affected by the race's incubation skill. As such, late game they become the longest to produce Swarm unit. Fortunately, costing only metal allows you to spam them, as Scorpions and Ants are the only other things in the entire Swarm army that cost any metal. ''Scorpion - The Swarm's Basic Infantry'' Scorpions are misleadingly good. A huge swarm of them is easy to assemble with their rarely-shared metal cost and can drown most things that they meet under a blanket of twitching legs and sharp pincers. Their poison strength is high and, with a fast attack speed, they are sure to inflict it upon their enemy. Also, despite a piercing attack, they can do some respectable damage to buildings, again, thanks to their fast attack speed. Scorpions are easy to mass and effective - you surely will be swarming with them! ''Wasp - Basic Flier'' The Swarm is the only race who can actively produce Wasps and it seems they were designed to fill their terrible anti-aerial support in a novelty way - assassination. Wasps may have poor stats, equaling that of a Bat, but their chance of assassination can deter Dragons and even flying Titans from approaching them. However, being random and luck based means it can be as useless as it can be battle turning, and so is something that you really shouldn't rely on. Its chance to poison is much more likely and with The Swarm having an unique research that doubles the power of poison, even a recent successful infliction can prove fatal in just a few moments. Most basic fliers in the game are near useless but, even though a Wasp's true power lies in luck, they can be a great addition to the army of The Swarm. ''Scarab - The Swarm's Basic Missile Unit'' Scarabs are the Basic missile unit of The Swarm, but they cost a considerable amount of gold. This largely reduces their numbers and more than often, you simply can't afford them when focusing on base support via towers. Not to mention that Dragons, Wasps and Harpies all require gold, too. Nonetheless, fire projectiles are always good at razing buildings and titles the Scarabs as the wrecking crew of The Swarm. ''Scorpionman - The Swarm's Advanced Cavalry'' Scorpionmen are quite expensive for what they are. Overall, they're not much better than a Scorpion, yet they count as twice as many units, and cost 3 times as much and with a resource you will be spending constantly in the form of building, regardless of whether it's for main buildings or towers. What ever you want from Scorpionmen, you could get just as good results from Scorpions and without compromising your base's construction. However, as they're the only unit to cost stone, then there's not much harm in producing them once your base is in good shape - just remember that they count as 2 units each. ''Bone Catapult'' The Swarm aren't exactly short of units to dispose of buildings and the ones they use can hide behind a wall of Husks to save them from tower fire. Further more, The Swarm is a fast passed race that simply don't have time to wait for siege weapons to travel across the map. If you do plan on using Bone Catapults for tower smashing, then you'll still need to bring in Husks, anyway. This is because the Bone Catapult's range is only 12, which has trouble out ranging even un-garrisoned towers. You're probably better off using Scarabs and Scorpionpriests for all situations that you would contemplate using a Bone Catapult for. ''Harpy - Advanced Flier'' Most races don't respect a Harpy's traits, mostly because those races either don't need them much, or have better units for the roles that Harpies perform. The Swarm, however, can make great use of both of the Harpy's attributes. The Harpy may have the weakest poison in The Swarm army, but it can still be devastating with Melkor's Curse in play, making those foolish enough to attempt a confrontation with a Harpy soon regret it. In addition to this, the Harpy's Drain Mana spell can be put to great use. A lot of the units in The Swarm's army are physically weak and rely on numbers to "swarm" then enemy. Apart from Catapults, the main culprits for ruining The Swarm's day are spell casters, who usually carry spells that can strike multiple targets. So, before you send in your swarm of insects, lead the assault with a flock of Harpies who will deplete the enemy spell casters of their magic either through their Drain Mana spell or simply by forcing the enemy spell casters to use it. Either way, the rest of your army are free to swarm! ''Scorpionpriest - The Swarm's General'' The Swarm's biggest weakness is their terrible air counters. They either have to rely on random assassination chances with their basic fliers, Wasps, or fire attacks which are the butt of a Dragon's joke. Even though the Scorpionpriest is responsible for some of those fire attacks, his main attack is a welcomed electrical one. When upgraded, the Scorpionpriest's attack deals 40 damage, and when combined with their Ring of Fire spells, they can go on a murderous rampage that requires careful counters. They can hold up to 100 mana, which is quicker to reach than you would expect due to The Swarm having access to all 3 Summon Mana skills. This mana can then be used for either spawning a Fire Elemental or saved up to defend themselves with, not one, but two Ring of Fire strikes! They may not be the best Generals out there, but whether it's helping out with much needed anti-aerial support, capturing mines, blasting buildings with their high powered electrical attacks or singeing infantry with their double Rings of Fire, Scorpionpriests can do a lot for The Swarm. ''Fire Elemental - Summoned Unit'' Fire Elementals offer some support for crushing enemy bases, but as they're only summoned through spells cast by Scorpionpriests, you have to decide whether you want extra building destroying capabilities or extra unit smiting power in the form of 2 Rings of Fire, which can actually be used against buildings, too, and at the same time. Although Fire Elementals are ranged, their fire type attack doesn't help the Swarm much in the fight for the sky. Dragons, Daemons and anything that's under the affect of Resist Fire can still ultimately stop the race dead in the fight for aerial dominance. ''Fire Dragon - Elite Flier'' The Fire Dragon is not a bad unit by any means, but The Swarm would have killed for a different Dragon - one that doesn't use, yet again, a fire typed attack. With Scarabs, Fire Elementals and Scorpionpriests (and even Bone Catapults), The Swarm don't need another unit for razing buildings, which is the specialized role of the Fire Dragon. (Although, there isn't many Dragons that could fit in The Swarm's army - but I like to believe that there could always be a "Wind" Dragon out there, one that could represent the Desert Winds. Or perhaps the Scorpionpriest could summon Air Elementals with the same logic) It's usually best to save up and purchase a Dragonliche instead, as its magic type attack can go a long way in helping The Swarm for aerial combat. Not to mention being a complete pain in the neck for your enemy! ''Dragonliche - Elite Flier'' It's a pity that the Dragonliche cost such a ridiculous amount, as The Swarm really needs strong aerial combatants that don't use fire attacks. Fortunately, when you do finally get one, it can cause all sorts of problems for your enemy. The aerial striking magic attack helps greatly, although Daemons still rain on your parade - literally, but with the Dragonliche's resistance to missiles, it can sponge most tower attacks and allow for more destructive units in your army to safely make their way to the enemy base and implode it, especially in the case of Scorpionpriests. Having access to both Husks and Dragonliches can make enemy archers more of a liability, forcing them to run more melee orientated troops that will then fall into your poisonous grasp! ''Lord Melkor - The Swarm's Titan'' Lord Melkor is one of the best melee Titans around, only being beaten by Lord Antharg for stats and Sirian for damage type. Although, a critical hit from Lord Melkor's powerful crunch will turn the battle in his favor, making him probably the best Titan for taking out infantry. He is also quite quick, being beaten in speed only by Kargoth, when compared to other Titans. Further more, Lord Melkor is quite easy to obtain due to The Swarm's single resource only units that are also rather cheap. As such, Lord Melkor is usually one of the first Titans to make their presence on the battlefield and one that makes a large impact. Being a grounded Titan, it's usually best to guard him with flying units, such as Dragons and especially Wasps, so his pathing doesn't get obstructed. Husks and Scorpionpriests also make fine additions to Lord Melkor's assault, due to the enemy wanting to keep their distance with archers, that your Husks can over whelm, or send in their own Dragons to take the fight directly to Melkor, where your Scorpionpriests can give them a good shock - unless your Wasps get their first! Strategy Overall The Swarm are a mid-tier race in Warlords Battlecry 3, designed to overwhelm their opponents with a horde of low-level units. They are not as effective at this strategy as the Fey due to the limitations of their buildings, although they do have some other features that make them the most balanced horde race. ''The Race'' Units The Swarm have a good mix of low level units, allowing them to rapidly spawn a fast moving attack force. (or bodyguard for the hero). The battle begins well enough with a mix of Husks and Scarabs causing real headaches for any opponent that doesn't boast a high fire resistance. From there however, production becomes a problem. (see Buildings) The high end Swarm units - Scorpionmen and Scorpionpriests - are extremely powerful and relatively cheap and fast to build. The Scorpionpriest ability to summon a fire elemental takes time to build mana, but often proves well worth the wait. Alternatively, a group of Scorpionpriests all casting Ring of Fire at once can devastate a horde or even a base in short order. (Send them into a horde or base, then change them to "Magic Attacker" and enjoy the show) Swarm fliers leave something to be desired - namely air-to-air capability. Aerial units with fire resistance can wreak havoc in the Swarm ranks. Buildings Enter the real drawback for the Swarm. In addition to the time and expense of leveling your keep, your primary unit producing building also requires leveling. While the cost involved is reasonable, the time lost to this process is not. To mitigate this, the Swarm player really needs to build two or three of its unit producing buildings, one or two at level 2 or 3 to keep a steady stream of units pouring out, and a third to level up and yield the critical Scorpionmen and Scorpionpriests. Aside from this nightmare, the Swarm buildings serve their purpose well enough - the ability to drain resources from your opponent's mines is useful. ''Heroes'' The Swarm enjoy a two skill synergy with the Warrior class, creating one of the most effective tank heroes in the game. This complements their unit set perfectly. For those that prefer a magic user, the Defiler is likely to be a powerful option, though it doesn't provide as many effective solutions to some of the race's problems. The synergistic Posion Magic sphere can be abused with the Defiler or Lichelord with various supportive spells which could greatly help the race since many units have a posionous attack (the Melkor's Curse research doubles the speed of poison damage to the enemy). This, combined with the Poison Cloud and similar spells can wreak havoc amongst enemy forces. Unfortunately, Poison Magic doesn't provide any new weaponry (except the Naga, which is most certainly not enough and can't even be summoned frequently enough to use properly as a weapon) and does nothing to help with the race's disadvantages. For any who want a speedy slayer, an Assassin can be used. The Dexterity bonus this class gives works well with the race's already high Dexterity to create a very fast killing machine. Ignore Armor is almost the centerpiece of the set, allowing the Swarm Assassin to cut through almost any opponent's armour (though cutting through any more than about 30 armour may become a little bit wasteful since that's around the maximum armour for any non-titan unit). The Assassination skill backs this up by making sure that even resistant units are likely to die within a short period of time (working well with the high Dexterity and attack speed). Constitution can be vital to buff the hero's toughness since the Assassin is likely to start with a low armour, resistance and/or HP stat. This character set may not be quite as useful by comparison to the Warrior in most circumstances but it takes good advantage of the Swarm's naturally high Dexterity and early access to Ignore Armour for anyone wanting to try an alternative melee hero. Counters *The Swarm's primary unit production building must be upgraded to gain access to many new units. If they are not capable of breaking an enemy combination because they can't produce any of the newer units, they may be found in big trouble. The Undead are the absoute biggest culprit for this, they can shrug off any poison and pretty much render nearly every Swarm unit obsolete thanks to the Undead resistance to piercing (Husks are not enough and Scarabs and Bone Catapults are expensive to keep producing). If the Swarm player is playing a wizard, they better not have much intelligence or a lot of the horde will just become XP food for Wraiths and Shadows (both of which counter Scarabs and Scorpionpriests). Unfortunately for the Swarm, the Undead aren't the only problem. Dark Dwarves also make very powerful counters to the Swarm as the are immune to poison, can AOE the Swarm with a multitude of units and finally crush them to death with Golems. *Most Swarm buildings are absolutely enormous. It is fair to say that the Swarm have the largest buildings in the game (possibly other than the Wood Elf Tree of Life). Because of this, their effectiveness varies more from map to map than most other races. If the map is small, they may be in for a great struggle to gain ground and construct buildings. Alternatively, they may be found in a position where they can build few buildings without having to contruct further buildings a great distance away, giving other players a good opportunity to render them effectively helpless. *Flying units with resistance to fire can proceed to annihilate nearly any Swarm base as the Swarm's main missile unit is the Scarab and they lack decent air to air fliers (until lategame). Towers can't be upgraded to deal anything other than increased fire damage or the base magic damage, which is usually not enough to hold back fire resistant flying hordes. Pretty much any Dragon will spell doom for the Swarm player unless the Swarm player has their own Dragon. *The Swarm's tactics pretty much rely on Scarabs. Starve a Swarm player of gold and it is likely they won't be able to do anything about units with a spread attack like Hydras, Salamanders and particularly Giants (a lot of Swarm units have a vulnerability to crushing). *Catapults really ruin Swarm's day. They can devastate entire hordes whilst the Swarm have few tools to deal with them. The Swarm do have Bone Catapults and Scarabs, but they are both outranged and vulnerable to the crushing blows of a catapult. Lore